Lady Midnight

Chapter 23

Emma's Parabatai rune felt strange. It had been aching for a few days now, but it felt different. It was almost as if the string tying her to Jules was fraying. What was happening?

For days, Emma, Taylor, and Livvy had been locked up by a sadistic maniac. Emma could see that her friends were becoming weaker and weaker. She still shared her extra piece of bread with them everyday. They only got one meal a day, so they had to ration it.

Everyday was an endless, torturous cycle. Wake up in pain, eat, be dragged down to Gwyn's experiment room, and pass out from the pain of the runes. Emma was surprised she was still sane.

Today was a little different. Gwyn came to get her before Taylor and Livvy even woke up. Emma was dragged like a rag doll behind him. She had absolutely no energy whatsoever to fight back.

She was dragged down a few unfamiliar hallways. They stopped when they reached a large oak door. Gwyn pushed the door open and lugged her inside. 

Emma supposed this was his office. It had comfortable furniture scattered around the room. He had a huge mahogany desk with an office chair behind it on the right side of the room.

 There was a little table with two chairs around it. He had a bookcase near the fireplace and a leather chair in front of it. The whole room was warmed by the fire in the hearth. 

He dragged her until she was on the floor near his fireplace. Gwyn plopped himself down on the leather chair. He rested his elbows on his knees," I bet you're wondering why I dragged you here."

Emma said nothing. He continued," I have a feeling you are going to be strong enough for the whole process of the demonic runes to take place. I can already see that your friends are not going to make it. I think you can see it too. The life in them is deteriorating. They won't last more than a few days."

Emma thought back to their weak bodies curled up while they were sleeping,"so are you going to stop putting the runes on them?" Emma asked.

Gwyn just laughed,"no. You see, they are already very weak. The runes will kill them. They are in a great deal of pain right now, so I am doing them a favor by ending their lives."

 Emma said,"why not just give them a quick death with a sword."

"It would be too messy. I don't feel like trying clean up all of the blood and trying to dispose of the bodies. It's better to let them die and if you touch them, their bodies will just turn into ash and fly away. It's much cleaner and simpler," explained Gwyn as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

 Emma could not rap her mind around how Gwyn would try to twist the most ungodly things into trying to make himself look like a saint. Who influenced him to make him like this?

Gwyn walked over to the bookcase near the fireplace. He stuck his hand far into the back of the top shelf.  His hand looked like it was feeling around for something. He smiled and pulled out an old leather book. He sat back down in his chair and held the book up,"do you know what book this is?"

Emma shook her head painfully. Gwyn said,"this book is how I got all of my knowledge about the demonic runes. There are only two copies of this book. You see, both of the copies used to be hidden in the Los Angeles Institute library."

He paused and then went on,"5 years ago, I had to sneak in through the window with my men. I found the first copy and wanted to find the second copy to make sure no one knew about it, but some people decided to come into the library while is was trying to find it. Your parents."

This grabbed Emma's attention. Gwyn continued,"they wanted read up on something before they went on their mission. My men had to use the element of surprise to knock them out. We had to get them out before anyone noticed, so I didn't have the time to look for the second one. Such a shame that they got in the way. We couldn't just leave them there because they would have told you about us. They were the first people I tested the runes on. I made the mistake of putting too many on at once, so they died."

Emma uttered every single foul word that she knew. Using all of the energy she had left, she launched herself at Gwyn. She tackled him and started hitting him blow after blow wherever she knew it would hurt most. 

Gwyn shouted and his men came rushing in. They teared Emma away from him. As they pulled her away, she dug her nails as deep as she could into his neck. 

The men had to pin down her arms and legs. Gwyn stood up and touched the side of his neck. His fingers came back with green on the tips. That was the color of his faerie blood.

He pointed a finger at her,"you are going to regret that." He took a metal rod that was by the fire and stuck it into the flames. He stared intently at his task.

"You should know that to complete the process of turning from the runes, you must break off any bindings that you have with others. It has come to my attention that you have a Parabatai," Gwyn,"the runes are already causing you bond to become weaker. It will eventually break the bond entirely, but I think it will speed up the process if the Parabatai rune were to be disfigured in some way."

One of his men stuffed a white cloth into her mouth. She tried screaming, but knew it was no use. No one would be able to come. They used a knife to rip her shirt enough to expose her Parabatai rune. The rune was not as black as pitch, like it used to be. It was almost a dark gray.

Gwyn took the metal rod out of the fire. At the tip was a big X.   It was glowing red. He came near her stood over her thrashing body. She couldn't let this happen. If the bond was severed, Jules would think she was dead.

Emma could feel the heat radiating off of the tip as it neared her skin. Gwyn whispered,"it will be over before you know it." And he pressed it against her skin.

There were no words to describe how it felt. The pain. The smell of her own burning flesh.

Emma could feel the invisible cord tying her to Julian strain.

 It got tenser.

 And tighter.

And snapped.